From the article: Abstract Business rules (BR’s) play a critical role in an organization’s daily activities. With the increased use of BR (solutions) and ever increasing change frequency of BR’s the interest in modifiability guidelines that address the manageability of BR’s has increased as well. A method of approach to improve manageability and modifiability is to utilize architectures to structure BR’s. In current literature three different methods to structure business rules can be identified: 1) the rule family-oriented approach, 2) the fact-oriented approach and, 3) the decision-oriented approach. Scientific research comparing the ability to modify business rules in each of the three architectural candidates is limited. The goal of this research is to evaluate which architectural candidate and underlying architectural structures allow for the best modifiability. We sought to do so by applying design science research for the creation of the architectural candidates and by conducting semi-structured interviews to identify the case-specific productivity scores. By applying an Architecture-Level Modifiability Analysis using eight years of historical data from the British National Health Service each architectural candidate is evaluated with regards to its modifiability. Results of the analysis reveal that the rule family-oriented architecture scores best on modifiability, followed by the fact-oriented architecture, and lastly the decision-oriented architecture. The results of this study provide a foundation for further research on the application and evaluation of business rule architectures.
LINK
Background Identify and establish consensus regarding potential prognostic factors for the development of chronic pain after a first episode of idiopathic, non-traumatic neck pain. Design This study used two consensus group methods: a modified Nominal Group (m-NGT) and a Delphi Technique. Methods The goal of the m-NGT was to obtain and categorize a list of potential modifiable prognostic factors. These factors were presented to a multidisciplinary panel in a two-round Delphi survey, which was conducted between November 2018 and January 2020. The participants were asked whether factors identified are of prognostic value, whether these factors are modifiable, and how to measure these factors in clinical practice. Consensus was a priori defined as 70% agreement among participants. Results Eighty-four factors were identified and grouped into seven categories during the expert meeting using the modified NGT. A workgroup reduced the list to 47 factors and grouped them into 12 categories. Of these factors, 26 were found to be potentially prognostic for chronification of neck pain (> 70% agreement). Twenty-one out of these 26 factors were found to be potentially modifiable by physiotherapists based on a two-round Delphi survey. Conclusion Based on an expert meeting (m-NGT) and a two-round Delphi survey, our study documents consensus (> 70%) on 26 prognostic factors. Twenty-one out of these 26 factors were found to be modifiable, and most factors were psychological in nature.
DOCUMENT
Author supplied Business rules play a critical role in an organization’s daily activities. With the increased use of business rules (solutions) the interest in modelling guidelines that address the manageability of business rules has increased as well. However, current research on modelling guidelines is mainly based on a theoretical view of modifications that can occur to a business rule set. Research on actual modifications that occur in practice is limited. The goal of this study is to identify modifications that can occur to a business rule set and underlying business rules. To accomplish this goal we conducted a grounded theory study on 229 rules set, as applied from March 2006 till June 2014, by the National Health Service. In total 3495 modifications have been analysed from which we defined eleven modification categories that can occur to a business rule set. The classification provides a framework for the analysis and design of business rules management architectures.
DOCUMENT
Business Rule Management (BRM) is a means to make decision-making within organizations explicit and manageable. BRM functions within the context of an Enterprise Architecture (EA). The aim of EA is to enable the organization to achieve its strategic goals. Ideally, BRM and EA should be well aligned. This paper explores through study of case study documentation the BRM design choices that relate to EA and hence might influence the organizations ability to achieve a digital business strategy. We translate this exploration into five propositions relating BRM design choices to EA characteristics.
DOCUMENT
Author Supplied: In the last decades, architecture has emerged as a discipline in the domain of Information Technology (IT). A well-accepted definition of architecture is from ISO/IEC 42010: "The fundamental organization of a system, embodied in its components, their relationships to each other and the environment, and the principles governing its design and evolution." Currently, many levels and types of architecture in the domain of IT have been defined. We have scoped our work to two types of architecture: enterprise architecture and software architecture. IT architecture work is demanding and challenging and includes, inter alia, identifying architectural significant requirements (functional and non-functional), designing and selecting solutions for these requirements, and ensuring that the solutions are implemented according to the architectural design. To reflect on the quality of architecture work, we have taken ISO/IEC 8402 as a starting point. It defines quality as "the totality of characteristics of an entity that bear on its ability to satisfy stated requirements". We consider architecture work to be of high quality, when it is effective; when it answers stated requirements. Although IT Architecture has been introduced in many organizations, the elaboration does not always proceed without problems. In the domain of enterprise architecture, most practices are still in the early stages of maturity with, for example, low scores on the focus areas ‘Development of architecture’ and ‘Monitoring’ (of the implementation activities). In the domain of software architecture, problems of the same kind are observed. For instance, architecture designs are frequently poor and incomplete, while architecture compliance checking is performed in practice on a limited scale only. With our work, we intend to contribute to the advancement of architecture in the domain of IT and the effectiveness of architecture work by means of the development and improvement of supporting instruments and tools. In line with this intention, the main research question of this thesis is: How can the effectiveness of IT architecture work be evaluated and improved?
DOCUMENT
Since an increasing amount of business decision/logic management solutions are utilized, organizations search for guidance to design such solutions. An important aspect of such a solution is the ability to guard the quality of the specified or modified business decisions and underlying business logic to ensure logical soundness. This particular capability is referred to as verification. As an increasing amount of organizations adopt the new Decision Management and Notation (DMN) standard, introduced in September 2015, it is essential that organizations are able to guard the logical soundness of their business decisions and business logic with the help of certain verification capabilities. However, the current knowledge base regarding verification as a capability is not yet researched in relation to the new DMN standard. In this paper, we re-address and - present our earlier work on the identification of 28 verification capabilities applied by the Dutch government [1]. Yet, we extended the previous research with more detailed descriptions of the related literature, findings, and results, which provide a grounded basis from which further, empirical, research on verification capabilities with regards to business decisions and business logic can be explored.
DOCUMENT
LINK
Promotor Prof. dr. ir. J.M. Versendaal, Open Universiteit Co-promotoren Dr. ir. R.G. Slot MBA, Hogeschool Utrecht Dr. ing. M.M. Zoet, Zuyd Hogeschool Uit de Nederlandse samenvatting: "Het is voor organisaties van belang om besluitvorming en zogenaamde 'bedrijfslogica' goed in te richten. Organisaties in het algemeen, en zeker ook overheidsinstellingen, maken meer en meer gebruik van (semi-)geautomatiseerde besluitvormingsprocessen bij het leveren van hun producten en diensten. Organisaties krijgen grip op de nale-ving van wet- en regelgeving door de besluitvormingsprocessen goed te beheren. Een adequate vertaling van wet- en regelgeving naar producten en diensten is hierbij no-dig. Business Rules Management (BRM) maakt een en ander mogelijk. Het meeste onderzoek dat wordt uitgevoerd naar BRM kan worden geclassificeerd als technisch (vanuit een informatietechnologieperspectief). Echter, onderzoek naar de implementatie van BRM in de organisatie (vanuit een informatiesysteemperspectief), inclusief het beschouwen van allerlei organisatorische aspecten, ontbreekt groten-deels. Bovendien houdt het bestaande onderzoek naar BRM niet altijd voldoende re-kening met de praktische toepassing van onderzoeksresultaten; met andere woorden: kan een organisatie de voorgestelde theorie of het opgeleverde resultaat daadwerke-lijk gebruiken?"
DOCUMENT
Dit essay geeft een systeemvisie op het ontwikkelen van embedded software voor slimme systemen: (mobiele) robots en sensornetwerken.
DOCUMENT
Background: There are indications that older adults who suffer from poor balance have an increased risk for adverse health outcomes, such as falls and disability. Monitoring the development of balance over time enables early detection of balance decline, which can identify older adults who could benefit from interventions aimed at prevention of these adverse outcomes. An innovative and easy-to-use device that can be used by older adults for home-based monitoring of balance is a modified bathroom scale. Objective: The objective of this paper is to study the relationship between balance scores obtained with a modified bathroom scale and falls and disability in a sample of older adults. Methods: For this 6-month follow-up study, participants were recruited via physiotherapists working in a nursing home, geriatricians, exercise classes, and at an event about health for older adults. Inclusion criteria were being aged 65 years or older, being able to stand on a bathroom scale independently, and able to provide informed consent. A total of 41 nursing home patients and 139 community-dwelling older adults stepped onto the modified bathroom scale three consecutive times at baseline to measure their balance. Their mean balance scores on a scale from 0 to 16 were calculated—higher scores indicated better balance. Questionnaires were used to study falls and disability at baseline and after 6 months of follow-up. The cross-sectional relationship between balance and falls and disability at baseline was studied using t tests and Spearman rank correlations. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to study the relationship between balance measured at baseline and falls and disability development after 6 months of follow-up.
DOCUMENT
